Fishing on the fly had always seemed like an exotic endeavor to me. Always appearing too difficult and too hard to understand. I was jealous of the friends who went to school in the mountains of North Carolina. It seemed that they were being given secrets that were only accessible if you were lucky enough to spend time around those streams or grew up with a grandfather who passed down his knowledge.
When I lived in New York I decided to give the sport a shot. I went out and purchased my first fly rod, a cheap piece of junk from our local Bass Pro Shops. I had met a friend who said he held the knowledge to help me catch my first fish on the fly. Turns out, he knew a lot less than he led on and was frankly no more "in the know" than I was. This led to me spending a few weekends going to fly shops in northern NY and hours of casting with few bites and even fewer catches.
The continuous failure caused me to eventually put down that rod down for a couple of years to collect dust. That was until I moved into Arlington. You see, I work out in Leesburg, VA and had spent a few weekends in Shenandoah always wondering what lurked beneath those beautiful streams and rivers. Between this and watching the Instagram stories and the posts from my friends who live and breathe fly fishing I had the itch to learn once again. I finally broke down and bought a better rod and began learning everything I could about proper casting techniques and where to look for fish. I must say thanks to all of the wonderful people who are members of TPFR, without you and your casting church I would have probably given up and moved on once again.
All of this finally led to me catching my first fish on the fly. I had spent hours fishing down on the lower end of the Potomac and finally pulled in smallmouth and bluegills back to back. This showed me that fly fishing was not impossible, it wasn't super exotic and it was a sport that provided so much excitement. I still didn't really know what I was doing but that was part of the thrill.
And this thrill came to a peak just a couple of weekends ago. I was lucky enough to make a trip down to Shenandoah National Park. My girlfriend and I were celebrating our anniversary in Charlottesville and we finished off the weekend by driving home the back way, making a few stops to hike and let the pup wander. I had brought my rod and a few new fly patterns with me and decided to give one of the streams a go. Like everything else I do with fly fishing I went in not knowing entirely what I was doing, but luck was with me that day. Very first cast, into the very first hole there was a hard strike leaving so surprised that I was barely able to set the hook. The excitement was indescribable but every one of you knows that exact feeling. Even though that was the only fish caught that day I felt extreme accomplishment for everything that happened.
I can finally say "I am a fly fisherman".
Thank you all.
-- http://www.tpfr.org
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